Chitwan Literature Festival next week

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, May : A two-day literature festival is set to be held in Chitwan on May 12 and 13. Speaking at a press conference organised in Narayangadh, Chitwan on Wednesday, festival director and columnist Sarita Tiwari informed that the festival, titled 'Chittaun Kacheheri' would consist of a dozen sessions centred on literature, history, civilisation, caste, indigenous knowledge, justice, gender, environment and artificial intelligence, among other topics.  "The festival will be one focusing on alternative ideas and it will be gender-friendly and inclusive," she claimed. 

According to Tiwari, poems and Ghazals (short poems consisting of rhyming couplets called bayt) will be recited at the festival and local music and dramas will be staged.

Deputy Coordinator Dr. Jivan Chhetri shared that almost half of the sessions would focus on the problems troubling the people of Chitwan.

At the session, ‘Indigenous people's view on establishment and development of Chitwan National Park', those who have suffered in the name of conservation in the park will present their stories of agony. Another session will talk about the crisis facing indigenous language and knowledge.

The organisers of the festival are the Bharatpur-based Manthan, Dabali The Space, Dalit Youth Awareness Forum, Better Chitwan, Youth Political Forum and Narayani Kala Mandir. The government of Bagmati Province is the main promoter. The festival will be held at the Narayani Kala Mandir in Narayangadh.